Sensors such as biometric sensors may be constructed on an integrated circuit (i.e., chip). For example, a typical fingerprint reader constructed on an integrated circuit consists of a grid of metal plates on the top of an integrated circuit die and a sense element in the die located beneath each metal plate.
Although it may be possible to reduce the size of the sense element, in some applications, the size of the area to be sensed may not be reduced. For example, for fingerprint readers, the sense area must large enough to sense a significant portion of a person's fingerprint. Accordingly, the integrated circuit sensors such as these may be relatively large in size.